Patriots on brink of historic 16-0 season

Saturday

Dec 29, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 29, 2007 at 10:35 AM

The final weekend of the NFL regular season will be a curious mix of the New England Patriots chasing history, two other teams trying to win their way into the playoffs and just about everyone else simply awaiting a predetermined fate.

The final weekend of the NFL regular season will be a curious mix of the New England Patriots chasing history, two other teams trying to win their way into the playoffs and just about everyone else simply awaiting a predetermined fate.

It's not exactly the sort of wild, anything-can-happen culmination of four months of play that league officials envision annually when they draw up the schedule. The biggest question in many NFL cities this week is whether the local team will -- or should -- sit its key starters this weekend to keep them healthy and rested for the playoffs.

The league at least has the Patriots attempting to complete the first 16-0 regular season in NFL history when they face the New York Giants tonight in Giants Stadium. It was to be the monumental game that practically no one got to see when it was to be carried only by the league-owned NFL Network, which remains in disputes with several large cable companies and is in only about 35 million U.S. households. Now it's the game that no one can miss, with the league announcing Wednesday that the NFL Network telecast will be carried by NBC and CBS in the sport's first nationwide simulcast since Super Bowl I.

After reaching 15-0 with Sunday's triumph over the Miami Dolphins, even the tight-lipped, one-step-at-a-time Patriots loosened up a bit and acknowledged that an unblemished regular season record would be meaningful.

"Being 16-0 would be a very special achievement, one that no other team has ever achieved," quarterback Tom Brady said during a midweek meeting with reporters. "And we're finally at that point."

The 1972 Dolphins remain the only unbeaten team in NFL history, finishing the regular season 14-0 and then going on to win three more games in the postseason, capped by a 14-7 victory over the Washington Redskins in the Super Bowl. When other clubs threatened in recent years to finish the regular season 16-0, the conventional wisdom was that it was a next-to-impossible task in today's NFL, with great teams being ripped apart by free agency and the salary cap.

"It's a great accomplishment," Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Jon Gruden said during a news conference this week. "I tip my hat to the coaches, the front office people and the players. It's unbelievable to do that and really in convincing fashion."

The Patriots also have a chance to rewrite the record book. Brady is one touchdown pass shy of Peyton Manning's league record of 49 in a season. Receiver Randy Moss is one touchdown catch from Jerry Rice's record of 22. The Patriots are five points from the season scoring record of 556 set by the Minnesota Vikings in 1998.

"I'd hate to think that we'd go out there and not put our best out there this week, so we've got to bring energy and excitement," Brady said.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick has given no sign that he intends to ease off even with his club having clinched home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Brady, Moss and other key Patriots players likely will be on the field unless they build a comfortable lead and Belichick decides to rest them. It's the Giants who could play with a diminished lineup.

The Giants, whether they win or lose, will play a first-round NFC playoff game in Tampa against the Buccaneers the following weekend. They don't have the luxury, as the Patriots do, of having a first-round bye.

So coach Tom Coughlin likely will sit receiver Plaxico Burress, who has played on a bad ankle all season. He also could sit quarterback Eli Manning and tailback Brandon Jacobs. A Giants team that has some of the elements necessary to challenge the Patriots, including superb pass rushers in defensive ends Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan, might be rendered a far less menacing opponent.

Brady joked that he'd rest Umenyiora and Strahan.

"Definitely Strahan and Osi should take the weekend off," Brady said. "I'd rest them, I know that. I definitely would not play those two. ... Coach Coughlin, if you're listening, definitely rest those guys."

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